A review of By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz

BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON begins with Dylan O'Connor and his younger, autistic brother, Shepard, driving across Arizona to an arts festival in New Mexico. After they stop at a motel for the night, Dylan leaves his brother in the room for a while and walks across the street to a restaurant to get some food. Dylan then makes his way back to the motel room and is clubbed from behind on the walkway as he attempts to open the door. When he wakes up, Dylan finds himself tied to a chair and about to be injected with an unknown serum by a mysterious, crazy-acting doctor named Lincoln Procter. The serum is Procter's own creation. It will cause Dylan's mind to either deteriorate or to expand to unbelievable magnificence. Once Dylan is injected, the good doctor warns him to take his brother and to run away as quickly as possible because there are hunters now closing in on them at that very moment. Their intent is to kill Lincoln Procter and anyone he has injected with the serum. After the doctor disappears, Dylan frees himself from the chair and hurriedly gets ready for the hostile journey that will change him and his brother forever. As he and Shep are preparing to leave the motel, they encounter Jillian Jackson-a female comedian who's also been injected with the serum-coming out of another room. The three of them have only seconds to readjust to this new situation as black Suburbans swiftly pull into the motel's parking lot, each one filled with deadly killers who are on the lookout for Dr. Procter. The trio barely manages to escape with their lives, but the hardest and most dangerous part is still ahead. Each of them will see miraculous changes within their own bodies and minds over the next twenty-four hours. They will develop the powers to see into the future and to transport themselves long distances in the blink of an eye. It may not be enough, however, to keep them alive as their pursuers close in for the kill.

As with many of the author's previous books, this novel also uses cutting-edge advances in science and technology and theories on time travel and teleportation as a focus point for the storyline. The average human being uses less than five percent of his brain capacity. If a method could be found to increase one's brain capability to forty or fifty percent, or even more, what wonders could we expect to see? What would mankind be able to accomplish? Mr. Koontz is able to see and understand where modern science and research are headed at this very second and simply takes it to next level, which may be within the realm of possibility ten or twenty years down the road. He doesn't see the future of humanity with a negative gleam in his eye, but rather with a wondrous, child-like anticipation, understanding the goodness that mankind is capable of perpetuating, if given the opportunity.

In BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON, the characters of Dylan and Shep O'Connor and Jilly Jackson are skillfully created to portray the "everyman" that's in most of us. They don't want what's thrust upon them. Yet, once it's realized that they can never return to the normalcy of their previous lives, none of them hesitates to move forward into the great unknown and to use their new powers to help those in need and in trouble, putting themselves at risk time and time again to do what they intrinsically know to be the right thing. This is therefore a passionate novel about what it takes to face unimaginable fear, knowing that you could die at any second, and to become a hero in the grandest sense of the term.

If you want to spend several hours reading a book that's not only fun and entertaining, but also purer magic within the scope of possibilities that it sets forth, then BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON is definitely the one to get. This is certainly a book that will delight you in many unexpected and thought-provoking ways because Dean Koontz has his fingers on the pulse of humanity's heart and soul, and there's no one better to pass along the message than him. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!